Report shows how much user fees actually covers the cost of road building
Share of State & Local Road Spending Covered by User Fees and User Taxes
January 07, 2014
By Richard Borean
Tax Foundation
This week’s map comes from a report we released earlier this week that looks at how state and local road spending is funded. This map looks specifically at the share of state and local road spending covered by user fees and user taxes.
As Joseph Henchman explained in his report:
The lion’s share of transportation funding should come from user fees (amounts a user pays directly for a service the user receives, such as tolls) and user taxes (amounts a user pays, based on usage, for transportation, such as fuel and motor vehicle license taxes). When road funding comes from a mix of tolls and gasoline taxes, the people that use the roads bear a sizeable portion of the cost. By contrast, funding transportation out of general revenue makes roads “free,” and consequently, overused or congested—often the precise problem transportation spending programs are meant to solve.
Delaware comes in first place due to 78.6 percent of its road spending being funded by user fees and user taxes. Hawaii (77.3%) and Florida (68.8%) are close behind. By contrast, Alaska (10.5%), South Dakota (21.5%), Wyoming (24.5%), and Louisiana (25.4) raise little of their transportation spending from user fees and user taxes, instead subsidizing it heavily with general revenues.
All maps and other graphics may be published and reposted with credit to the Tax Foundation.